This invention relates generally to a system for locating missing items and for protecting the items once located. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for identifying the location of a missing item including a transmitter and receiver which employ electronic circuitry.
This invention was conceived to solve a common problem experienced by travelers, namely, to have some means for identifying or locating their luggage in a baggage claim area of an airport, bus terminal or the like, and for ensuring that their luggage is not lost or stolen after it is retrieved. Luggage is often confused with similar looking luggage or mistakenly removed from the baggage claim area and moved to another location. It is therefore typical in airports for travelers to have difficulty identifying or finding their luggage and keeping their luggage close to them while retrieving other pieces of luggage. Of course, these types of problems exist with many other objects as well. It would thus be useful to have a means for identifying or locating a plurality of items in any location.
It is well known to use a miniaturized signal transmitter to activate a battery powered receiver for the purpose of locating a wide range of objects such as automobiles, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,556 to Oh, television remote controls, U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,143 to Wentz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,050 to Sacca, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,891 to Sacca, eyeglasses, U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,677 to Staino, Jr., and other items which are commonly misplaced, U.S. Pat. No. 5,677,673 to Kipnis. Radio frequency transmitters and receivers which emit both light and sound are also commonly used for purposes of locating lost objects, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,873 to Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,469 to Lander, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,105 to Hedrick.
It is also known in the art to apply such radio transmitting technology to luggage. U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,719 to DeSorbo discloses a remotely armed suitcase alarm system. The system comprises a remote transmitter unit and a motion sensitive alarm which is attached to the suitcase and includes a signal receiver unit. U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,702 to Kuo discloses an alarm/security device integrated in the luggage which can be remotely activated to produce a siren and an electric shock. U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,692 to Tompkins discloses an airport luggage tracking system which utilizes a beeper paging device and requires a telephone call through a nationwide paging system to locate the luggage.
The prior art devices attempt to solve the same general problem of locating objects by a signal-activated receiver or an alarm transmitter attached to the object. However, each has a problem in utilization which makes it relatively unattractive to manufacture or use. Some devices incorporate costly timer shutoff or battery power saver circuitry in an attempt to conserve power usage and prolong the use time between battery changes. To attract the user"" attention, others require a loud alarm or distinctly audible type of sound, such as a loud continuous beeping, which may be annoying or disturbing to other people in the vicinity. Other devices employ complex triangulation locator circuitry in order to allow a person distant from the object to home in on the object. Still others employ cumbersome encoding circuitry and activation elements to initialize individual devices for a plurality of objects that might be lost.
Accordingly, it is a broad object of this invention to provide an improved locator device for identifying and locating an object which is inexpensive to produce and operates in a manner that allows the user to find the tagged object easily. In particular, it is desired that costly timer shutoff or battery power saver circuitry, loud annoying sounds, triangulation locator circuitry, or cumbersome encoding elements are avoided.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a small transmitting device activated by the push of a button which signals a receiving device attached to or incorporated into any item to send out an easily identifiable audible and/or visible signal.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an improved locator device having a user selected setting on the transmitting device that allows the user to identify when an item containing the signal receiving device is moved more than a specified distance away from the user.
In the present invention, these purposes as well as others which will be apparent are achieved generally by providing an inexpensive and easy to use electronic system for locating an object from a remote location.
In accordance with the present invention, an object locator system comprises: at least one transmitter unit having a casing housing a transmitter circuit therein for outputting an RF signal, a first pushbutton operable externally of the casing and coupled to the transmitter circuit for sending the RF signal only when the pushbutton is pressed, a second pushbutton for use in programming the certain features of the locator system, and a slide switch for determining an operating mode (i.e., on/off/protection); and at least one receiver unit having a casing provided with attachment means for allowing it to be attached to or incorporated into an object, said casing housing a receiver circuit for receiving the RF signal transmitted by the transmitter unit and outputting an activation signal, and a light illumination element that is illuminated in response to the activation signal, wherein said receiver circuit is operative to output said activation signal only for so long as the RF signal is received from the transmitter unit.
The transmitter circuit includes a digital oscillator and a user operated means for setting the transmitter circuit to send at least one unique coded signal, and the receiver circuit includes a digital decoder circuit and a user operated means for setting the receiver circuit to detect the unique coded signal, whereby the receiver unit only responds to the transmitter unit sending the unique coded signal. In a preferred embodiment, the transmitter unit may be programmed to send several unique coded signals for operating a plurality of receiver units. The unique coded signal may be set in the transmitter and receiver circuits either during manufacture or by the user by means of a digital processor, which enables a broader range of coded signals.
The receiver casing may be formed with an through-hole at a narrowed end, through which a fastener is inserted for attaching the receiver unit to a selected object. Alternatively, the light illumination element and attachment means may be combined in one element or the receiver casing may be incorporated directly into the selected object. The transmitter unit is formed as a small hand held unit about the size of a key ring. The receiver unit includes a sound generator for generating a sound output in response to the activation signal in cases where the object is out of the user""s visual field or hidden from view. The invention also encompasses the related method of sending the RF signal and illuminating the light element only for so long as the RF signal is received from the transmitter unit, in order to provide the user direct visual feedback to the user""s pushbutton presses that would make it easy to locate the object in a crowded visual field.
In the preferred embodiment, the transmitter unit can be placed in a protection mode by moving the slide switch or alternatively, the transmitter may be programmed by the user to transmit an RF signal or series of RF signals to the receiver unit to activate the protection mode. In this mode, the object must be within a specified distance of the user (and the transmitter) and if the object is moved out of that distance, the receiver unit will emit the selected sound and/or light. To achieve this, the locating circuitry is reversed. The transmitter unit continuously sends the coded signal specified for a selected receiver unit, as opposed to only when the pushbutton is pressed. The receiver unit therefore continuously receives the coded signal and will generate a sound and/or light output when the coded signal is no longer received.